Where to now for 2012?

Marathons 

Well always the focus is Canberra Marathon in April however this year I have 3 planned marathons before that and so the training will be interrupted by running them but all a re new so I will do them.

The SMC marathon on the 16th January was unexpected and may not occur again. There are reasons why my Club is putting in on that I do not need to go into here. Simply to say for some it is the last chance to get a qualifier for 6ft in March. The cut of is 4.20 and I expect I will run a sweeper. At that pace it should bea very comfortable training run.

A couple of weeks later on Australia Day I will travel to Brisbane to run a very small marathon put on by 'Digger'. The pace will be a bit quicker but no more that a 5.30 pace training run. That is there will be only a day or 2 taper.

In February there is a marathon at Caboolture and I don't think they have included a marathon. Maybe time to have a bit of a quicker hit out. But we will see how training in progressing 

Training

I am a follower of Lydiard but usually that means I am usually do nothing but base building training and getting good results but I think I could run a few marathons quicker and so I need add something to the training.That means some sessions that incorporate some shorter quicker repeats.

I usually do not do them as I find then difficult mentally and they seem to inflame the Achilles but hey are in and I will see what happens. So my weekly program will include a few of these sessions instead of the usual long runs that get quicker as time goes on. I will still be doing these but not daily and I will be paying much more attention to pace.

I will be working on 3 or 4 weeks blocks. That is he pace for that period will be set and as best as I can I will maintain it even though as the block progresses the pace gets more comfortable. I will maintain the pace for the black and then review my fitness with the aim of increasing the pace of each session. 

Rather conventional for most programs but something I have not done fora few years.

Lets hope it does not in the short term result in any injury or niggle and in the long term gives me a couple of marathons during 2012 quicker than I have run for a while.